Gov. Rick Snyder changes makeup, size of Michigan's parole board

Day 38: This is one in a series of posts assessing key developments during Gov. Rick Snyder's self-imposed 182 days to chart a new course for Michigan by July 1. For earlier posts go to mlive.com/stateofchange.

Michigan’s governor has appointed members of the state’s parole and commutation board since the early 1990s when then-Gov. John Engler took the power to release felons out of the hands of career civil servants at the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Gov. Rick Snyder has reduced the board back to the 10 members it was before Gov. Jennifer Granholm expanded it to 15. But the authority to appoint the new board will be transferred from the governor’s office to the Corrections Department director, currently Richard McKeon, who is currently serving in an acting capacity while a national search for a permanent director is conducted.

The executive order, Snyder’s third as governor, is aimed at streamlining government and allowing for the more efficient implementation of corrections policies by the department.

The new parole board members won’t have civil service protections, but will serve at the pleasure of the department director for four-year terms. Current board members are eligible for appointment. As many as six board members could be department employees. The order takes effect April 15.

Following the recommendations of the National Council of State Legislatures experts in Granholm’s second term, prisoners were presumed to be eligible for parole after serving 120 percent of their mandatory minimum sentence. On average before that, felons were serving an average of nearly 140 percent of their sentence.

And the NCSL report said Michigan’s $2 billion prison budget exceeded that of other Midwest states primarily because it was keeping inmates behind bars for longer periods of time, a finding that Budget Director John Nixon endorsed last week.

“We really need to look at sentencing guidelines,” Nixon said. “If you want to be tough or tougher on crime, you have to be willing to pay for it.”

The current prison population is around 45,000, down from a high of 51,000 in 2006.

Queried about the executive order, Attorney General Bill Schuette, who has been a critic of accelerated parole policies, “supports reforming state government, as long as its responsibility for public safety is priority one,” said spokesman John Sellek. “Dangerous criminals must be kept behind bars.”